Keeping to the night-darkened corners of the interior, Kieel zipped to the top of a bookcase and knelt on the edge closest to the group. With a jolt he recognized Cantruto, the adjutant to Tinpaca Mondago. It was clear that he was in charge.
The discussion confirmed his fear that the men were traitors. The name Nissasa Rattori came up several times. Although the small rebel group could send an occasional and carefully worded message via the Tropal Gateway at the cottage site, it was impractical if not impossible to bring reinforcements that way. They had to gain control of Demrach Gateway.
Cantruto shot a furtive glance around the cabin and leaned in to his comrades. “The package has arrived at its destination. With luck, a message for the Guardian is on the way. It’s sure to bring her out of hiding, and we’ll grab her. Once she’s in our hands, Evolsefil and Elcaro’s eye are as good as ours. And she’ll tell us the whereabouts of SparrowLyn, the twins, and the boy, Esán.”
“And if she doesn’t?” a man asked.
The ruthlessness in Cantruto’s expression provided an answer. Kieel shuddered.
The men leaned even closer together. Their faces, illuminated by the glow of the lite-stick, only exacerbated Kieel’s growing sense of dread. Cantruto wore cruelty like a second skin. The other two magnified it. Kieel’s blood ran cold as they developed a barbaric plot to murder Mondago. Nissasa wanted him out of the way before the messenger from Idronatti arrived. The assassination would take place as soon as they returned to camp. A shuffle of feet announced the end of the meeting. One-by-one, the men left the cabin and made their way into the cover of the forest.
Kieel zipped down to a windowsill, his mind in turmoil. Reana whizzed through the open window and landed beside him. A large dragonfly followed. Kieel clutched the knob of his walking stick. The dragonfly was not Ethor. A blue Pentharian materialized in its place. The warrior’s sudden appearance left Kieel at a loss for words.
Reana filled in the gap. “This is Voer, Grandee. He followed the other two men. We listened from the window.”
Relaxing his grip on his small sword’s wooden sheath, Kieel lifted into flight and hovered at the height of the Pentharian’s tattooed face. “Almiralyn only told me of Yuin and Jeet…” He let the words hang in the air like a question mark.
“My comrade, Stee and I, were in Thera with the mother of the twins and One Man, Esán’s father. We returned a short time ago. Almiralyn asked us to help you keep an eye on the RewFaaran camp. When I saw you follow the one called Cantruto, I followed the other two. Reana offered to introduce us.” Voer’s stance and his explanation were open and friendly. He held out his hand, palm up. “I am honored to meet the Matrés of the Nyti.”
Kieel flitted to the upturned hand. “I am honored to meet you, Voer. How much did you hear?”
“I arrived shortly after you entered the cabin.”
“Then you heard everything?”
“Yes. I have a message for you from Almiralyn. The Guardian has sent an emissary to the High DiMensioner od DerTah to negotiate a plan to join forces against Nissasa Rattori.”
Kieel tapped his walking stick on Voer’s palm. “Then we must find a way to warn the Tinpaca of Cantruto’s duplicity.”
A dragonfly flashed through the window and hovered near his granddaughter. “It’s all clear,” she said. “The men are on their way back to camp.”
Kieel lifted off Voer’s palm. “I suggest we arrive first.” He shot out the window with Reana at his side. The two dragonflies streaked ahead of them. He could only hope they would make it to the camp in time.
One man had slipped away to his quarters in Meos. After fifteen sun cycles as a recluse, he found that Human interactions still took their toll. Solitude soothed his nerves. He ran his fingers through his braid, loosening the hair until it fell around his shoulders. Resting his elbows on his knees, he dropped his head in his hands, the wheat-gold strands forming a tent around his face. A sigh lifted a tendril of hair and let it fall back into place. Sometimes he wished his acute senses would take a rest. Shaking his hair back from his face, he crossed to the entryway. When the small bell rang, he pulled the curtain aside, knowing that Almiralyn would be there.
Her attempt at a smile melted away as quickly as it appeared. “I don’t want to intrude, Somay, but I need your help.”
“Come in, Almiralyn. I’ve been expecting you.”
He guided her to a chair and sat on the bench facing her. “I’ll help in any way I can. What is it that has you so upset?”
Rubbing her hands down her upper thighs, she gripped them above the knees. Her elbows locked, and her shoulders hunched forward. She closed her eyes and inhaled a deep breath. As it released, she searched his face. Apparently satisfied with what she saw, she relaxed back in the chair. “I would like to make peace with your brother. In order to do that, I need to know your history and his—how you came to Idronatti—what happened to him when you were children. Anything that will help me to understand how I hurt him enough to make him want to destroy Myrrh and me.”
He had wondered at her use of his given name, Somay. Now he understood. Knowing her as he did, he did not doubt her sincerity nor that her pain matched Davin’s in its depth and breadth. Although he and Nomed had been at odds for a long time, he, too, felt a need to bridge the gap between his brother and himself. Sharing their family history with Almiralyn would help them both understand what drove the DiMensioner. The time had come for past differences to be put aside and to stand united against a common threat.
“You do know he is my half -brother, right?” When she nodded, he continued. “And you know that his true name is Davin Farlow. For the purposes of this discussion, I will refer to him by this name. If you have questions, ask. I will tell the story as I have pieced it together from my mother and with the help of the Seed of Carsilem.” He ordered his thoughts and began.
“Our father, Koewin Farlow, was Idronattian by birth and a ranking member of the PPP’s Unit 22, an elite group of scientists hand-picked for planetary exploration. While in Tao Spirian on a secret expedition, he met our mother, Sancia. It was love at first sight, at least for him. For Sancia, loving a man from another planet was out of the question.
“Tao Spirians are betrothed at birth. In a ceremony celebrating one’s transition to life, the high priest and priestess of the planet select the person one will be mated to when one achieves the Age of Latdus. Sancia had only one moon cycle to go before she would join her lifemate, Eitan. Needless to say, she did not return Koewin’s feelings.
“One night in a fit of anger, he followed her home from work. When she refused to bed with him voluntarily, he took her by force. What follows is the story Koewin related in a letter he left behind when he disappeared from Idronatti. I heard it so often that I long ago committed its contents to memory.
“Sancia, I have never spoken of the events following the evening I took you by force on Tao Spirian and would like to do so at this time. “The morning after, I awoke in a cell with no memories of how I had gotten there. My accommodations included a cot, a latrine, and a chair. One window allowed me to watch the moon cycles pass.
“For six moon cycles, the only person I saw was the boy who brought my food. One morning, a man in the robes of a priest unlocked the cell and escorted me to a room with a shower. As soon as I was clean and dressed, the man guided me through a pristine building to a room where three men gathered around a table. I was told to sit.
“A slender man, whose name sounded like a series of musical notes, explained the seriousness with which Tao Spirians looked upon my crime. When I denied my actions and tried to blame you, Sancia, the man reminded me that the type of behavior I had exhibited was unheard of on the planet. He explained that all Tao Spirians aspired to reach the highest spiritual levels of compassion and empathy. All citizens maintained an empathic connection to one another that enlivened during times of pain or suffering, one that began at birth. The entire population of the planet had experienced my abuse of you.
“I received the information with a sense of shock and shame. The punishment for my crime was total isolation for the rest of my life. I was informed that you, Sancia, were pregnant with Davin. After I had been given time to think, the man offered me a means by which I could make amends. If I agreed to their plan, we would remain on Tao Spirian for two additional sun cycles, during which time you would fulfill your commitment to Eitan. Then we would be joined in the ways of Idronatti, and you would return with me to Thera as my wife. Shortly after our arrival in The City, you would give birth to a second son by your lifemate, whom I would claim as my own. I was to raise both boys. If I chose to do this, the Tao Spirian council would not report my behavior to the PPP. The caveat was that I would not harm you or the boys in any way, nor would I tell anyone on Thera of the bargain I had made. The idea of isolation terrified me even more than incarceration in Tower Five, so I agreed.
“The rest of the letter contained remorse for his actions and an apology. What I am about to tell you, I distilled from conversations with my mother regarding their life in Idronatti.
“When Koewin and his family returned to Thera, the fact that he had been joined to a Tao Spirian met with disfavor in the PPP. His job was downgraded. He was placed in housing in Domlenah Lower Blue, a poor substitute for his former Uptown Blue apartment. Fury at the hopeless situation that he had brought upon himself boiled inside him. He blamed our mother, but he dared not hurt her or her Tao Spirian son. No one could tell him what he could or could not do to his own son. When Davin turned five sun cycles, he became the target for our father’s anger.”
One Man paused. The memories made his heart ache. He glanced at Almiralyn, saw the understanding in her eyes, and continued.
“I remember the constant tension in our home—my father’s yelling—Mother’s gentle response. When she refused to retaliate in anger, Koewin would beat Davin. Afterward, he would take off for long periods. Our life was wonderful without him. When he returned, the cycle of anger and abuse began again.
“At home Davin was stoic. At the Education Center he was always in trouble. Myrrh was the only place he felt safe. When he broke the kitten’s neck, Father’s beating had been particularly brutal. You banned him from Myrrh. He swore he would make you pay. Prior to his fourteenth Sun Cycle Celebration he ran away so that his memories of you and Myrrh would not be expunged. Everything that went wrong in his life, he blamed on you, even the fact that Tianna, Esán’s mother and my lifemate, did not love him.”
He took a deep breath. Sadness settled over his features, filling Almiralyn with remorse.
“Somay, I am so sorry. I don’t know how I missed the signs, or why I was so thoughtless. I have no excuse for behavior so unbecoming a Guardian.”
The empathy of his race kept him quiet while she sorted through her dismay and self reproach. Finally, he touched her knee. “Almiralyn, when we make a choice that is contrary to our nature and it hurts another, all we can do is try to understand, to learn from the error, and to move forward. Isn’t that part of the impetus for The Unfolding?”
She wiped a tear from her chin. “You mean facing the shadow parts of ourselves and growing beyond them?”
He smiled. “Yes. I know that’s only a small part of it, but it is definitely important.”
The Guardian of Myrrh smiled her agreement and squared her shoulders. “What can I do to make this up to Davin?”
“You may have to accept that you can do nothing. Once you have spoken with him, it will be up to him to find space for forgiveness.” He handed her a handkerchief.
“Thank you, Somay. I appreciate your willingness to share.” She dried her tears and returned it. A quick hug and she took her leave.
In the quiet that followed, he refolded the handkerchief and pressed it to his heart. The tears of a Guardian were a gift of love. He tucked it carefully away and returned to his chair, his hair tenting his face once more. The memories had stirred up emotions he preferred to keep hidden. Memories, stories of our pasts… He shut his eyes, wishing Tianna were in the room, wishing he could talk to her, wishing he could share his concerns about Esán…
Sparrow looked around the artist’s studio that had been prepared for her. She couldn’t believe Almiralyn had made sure she had what she needed to paint in Meos. Yookotay had ordered the studio prepared and arranged for special illumination that replicated natural light. Clean canvases stacked against the wall waited for her to cover their pristine whiteness with color. Merrilea had put a drop of her Myrrhinian blood in each jar of paint as Almiralyn had instructed when they first arrived in Myrrh several moon cycles ago. Sparrow had learned while painting the events of the DiMensioner’s revenge to respect this wish. Her work had become prophetic and alive. Ready to begin, she centered herself and picked up her palette.
The canvas on the easel called her to splash it with a pale blue wash. She dipped her brush in the blue on her palette, mixed it with a dab of white, added a touch of water, and began. The pictures in her head consolidated and flowed from brush to canvas. Her concentration was so complete she barely noticed Allynae enter and walk to her side. One color after the other, a shadow here, a highlight there, a touch of texture until she dropped her brush in a jar and stepped back. The shock of the image shook her from her creative trance and left her trembling. Allynae’s arm around her waist steadied her. His silence caressed her, calming the emotions that sent tears rolling down her cheeks.
“It’s him,” she whispered and stared at the two figures on the canvas. Her mother, in a long dress of teal blue, her hair piled high on her head, a single diamond on a gold chain around her neck, looked up at a man with an abundance of red hair and a sprinkling of freckles. He was tall and well-built with a strong profile. Authority robed him like a priest. “It’s the Largeen Joram of RewFaar.”
“It’s your father, Sparrow.” Allynae’s arm tightened as she wavered.
“I know.” She leaned into the comfort of his presence and sobbed.
41
ConDra’s Fire
DerTah
R ikell trotted over the desert sands, unaffected by the heat or the lack of water or the dust billowing around it. It had cast off its Human form in favor of its own more adaptable body. Its lanky, loose-limbed frame with its leathery skin and bear-like, skulled head brought cringes of distaste and often terror from those not of its origin. It laughed out loud. “I am a Mindeco from the Trutore Mountains on RewFaar. I am Mindeco, Mindeco, Mindeco,” it bellowed above the wind’s fury.
It came to a standstill and inhaled. Wide nostrils opened and closed and opened again. The scent of teleportation, dispersed by the howling wind, had grown less prevalent. Crouching low, it scooped up a handful of sand and let it slip between its strong, talon-like fingers. Nose to the ground, it loped along on all fours. Gangly arms with big, boney hands powered its big-footed gallop. Speed, one of its greatest assets, excited it almost as much as the kill. It loved the pounding of its blood beneath its skin, the scorching air licking its face, the sand bouncing off its thick hide. Existence is good. Training the black emptiness of its single, centered eye on the terrain and the fast fading trail, it accelerated.
Thoughts of Nissasa Rattori, the only Human ever to bind it, made it snarl and gnash its teeth. It hated and feared its RewFaaran master. No Human could cause its demise, but Nissasa Rattori could and would make its time outside the Trutores unbearable if he chose to do so. Only success would insure Rikell’s ability to remain free, only success would provide it with its next Human body.
Again, it paused. Hunching low, it alternately pressed one nostril closed and then the other and blew. Once its nose was clear of sand, it resumed its fast-paced gallop. Too bad Nissasa wants the objects of this search alive. If a healthy kill awaited me, I’d speed up. Why he needs me to do this job is a mystery. I’m only after a couple of children. How difficult can it be?
Esán had read all there was to read regarding the Temple of Nesune and its ruins. Ira and
Desirol slept, curled up on a bench with a pack for a pillow. Yaro and Torgin sat together near the Statues of Sinnttee, talking in whispers. Tucking the small, leather-bound book in his pocket, he began a slow and studied circuit of the HeLew od Meti. When he reached Brie where she knelt at the eastern petal, her lite-stick illuminating the ornate image, he crouched beside her. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
“It’s fascinating. I wish we had time to study it.” She shot a worried glance in the direction of the entrance. “Whatever is following us is closing the gap. Can you feel it?”
He let his gaze roam the petal’s design and responded telepathically. “It is unlike anything I have ever known—worse than the death shadow. I tried a mind probe, but its shields…” He shook his head. “At this distance, I couldn’t break through.”
“It’s tracking the energy trail left from teleporting, isn’t it? ” She hurried on. “So we can’t teleport again, can we? ”
He pulled her to her feet. “We’d better talk to Yaro. Maybe he’ll have some ideas about what to do.”
Choosing not to disturb Ira and Desirol, they circled the HeLew and approached the Statues of Sinnttee from the opposite side.
Torgin patted the bench next to him. “Have a seat. Aren’t the statues exquisite?” He flexed his musician’s fingers and rubbed his palms along his pant legs. “I know that look, Esán. What’s wrong?”
Brie sat down next to Torgin. Esán explained the problem.
“Worse than the death shadow?” Torgin groaned. “What do we do?”
The UnFolding Collection Two Page 33